Three Pompano Beach, Florida, stores that sold lottery tickets violated state law and won't ever be allowed to sell tickets again, Florida Lottery officials announced Monday.

Officials said in a news release that the three stores, which were raided this month, also broke lottery rules and the terms of their contract.

The news release did not specify which laws were broken or whether any legal action would be taken against the owners. Lottery Assistant Secretary David Bishop said the lottery would not provide any more details.

At least one owner said he's done nothing wrong, has not been contacted by lottery officials and wants to keep selling lottery tickets.

The three stores, each within a short drive of one another in the same hard-edged Pompano Beach neighborhood, were cited last month in a local investigation.

The investigation revealed that some people might be winning the lottery too often, against astronomical odds. Other states found frequent winners to be store clerks stealing winning tickets from customers, ticket "brokers" who cashed in tickets for people seeking to avoid debts and criminals using the lottery to launder money. (See Florida Lottery announces changes in response to reports of repeat winners, Lottery Post, Apr. 3, 2014.)

One of the stores, the Akel Market at 502 N.W. Sixth St., was the top source of winning tickets for the lottery's most prolific winner.

Louis Tillman Johnson, of Pompano Beach, cashed in 252 lottery tickets worth $600 or more between October 2007 and August 2013. He collected more than $719,000 in winnings. Fifty-three of his tickets were sold at Akel Market.

The other stores, the Georgia Market at 1404 N.W. Sixth Ave. and the Kwik Stop Food Store at 617 Hammondville Road, also were big sources of tickets for Johnson, who said he never actually won.

Johnson, 68, said somebody had been cashing in tickets in his name and sticking him with the tax bill. He said on the day of the April 2 raids, he was visited by police and told not to say anything. He said he did not hear from any lottery or law enforcement official on Monday.

The manager of Georgia Market said he has heard nothing official from the lottery, just rumors.

"They're accusing us of cashing in tickets under the table," Faisal Memen, 33, said after the raid.

He and his employees have done nothing wrong, he said Monday.

"What's unfair is unfair," Memen said. "Hopefully, they'll realize it sooner or later and come to their senses."

He has petitioned them to have the machines reinstalled, since business has dropped 15 percent to 20 percent in their absence, he estimated.

Memen manages the store's day-to-day operations, but it's owned by Tariq Bazian, 27. Bazian owns and manages a check-cashing business inside the store.

Bazian said after the April 2 raid that he thinks the lottery suspects stores acted as brokers, collecting winning tickets to help winners avoid taxes. He said his store employees have done nothing wrong.

"It's a big deal for nothing," he said.

Both men said they didn't know Johnson, who lives in the neighborhood and is a regular at Akel Market.

Lottery officials said the decision to permanently revoke the store's ability to sell lottery tickets was based on interviews and records.

"The integrity of the Florida Lottery is essential. The taxpayers of this state demand it, and so do I," Florida Lottery Secretary Cynthia O'Connell said in a statement. "We expect that each of our retailers abide by the code of integrity outlined in their contract with the lottery. When they don't, our responsibility to our players and this organization is to end our relationship with that retailer."

The lottery said its investigation started in August, but lottery officials did not seize the machines from the stores until after local media published the first story on March 30.

The investigation found that the lottery wasn't following some of the industry's best practices, including asking winners whether they own or work for stores that sell lottery tickets. Six of the 10 most prolific winners were owners or clerks at stores that sold lottery tickets but none worked at the three convenience stores targeted Monday.

Afterward, the lottery announced some changes, which included adopting software to track frequent winners and installing more self-checking machines at its outlets.

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The news release did not specify which laws were broken or whether any legal action would be taken against the owners. Lottery Assistant Secretary David Bishop said the lottery would not provide any more details.

Interesting...no more details?

Is this being tough on crime, or just the appearance of being tough on crime?

California tells vendor's why they being shut down. They send a shot across the vendor's bow. Amongst their violations: lying about the true worth of the ticket- in this case,scratchers. Charging a percentage to cash your scratcher tickets for less to avoid child support payments. Florida should be up front and spill the beans, after all- its pointless closing the barn door once the animal has taken off.

wow its not like florida is a poor state. to run such a shoddy operation,.

Louis Tillman Johnson, of Pompano Beach, cashed in 252 lottery tickets worth $600 or more between October 2007 and August 2013. He collected more than $719,000 in winnings. Fifty-three of his tickets were sold at Akel Market.

and

The investigation found that the lottery wasn't following some of the industry's best practices, including asking winners whether they own or work for stores that sell lottery tickets. Six of the 10 most prolific winners were owners or clerks at stores that sold lottery tickets

both suggest Florida lotto are just really slack at due dilligence but are geting on the case now, and that theyre really worried by missing taxes payments of debt

Makes it look like they don't want anybody knowing how lax they've been on enforcement for so long.

I agree. It looks very bad for them to come out and say, "we caught these guys breaking the law but we won't tell you what law." It definately looks like they have something to hide and just causes more distrust.

Makes it look like they don't want anybody knowing how lax they've been on enforcement for so long.

Most states know crooks are cashing lottery tickets to laundry drug money or help some players avoid taxes and child support but unless they can save more money than it cost to correct the problem it doesn't make economic sense to do anything about it.

* you don't need more tickets, just the right ticket * * your best chance at winning a lottery jackpot is to buy a ticket * "I will magically reveal the winning numbers after the drawing"

The news release did not specify which laws were broken or whether any legal action would be taken against the owners. Lottery Assistant Secretary David Bishop said the lottery would not provide any more details.

Interesting...no more details?

Is this being tough on crime, or just the appearance of being tough on crime?

"The integrity of the Florida Lottery is essential. The taxpayers of this state demand it, and so do I," Florida Lottery Secretary Cynthia O'Connell said in a statement. "We expect that each of our retailers abide by the code of integrity outlined in their contract with the lottery. When they don't, our responsibility to our players and this organization is to end our relationship with that retailer."

Apparently the State of Florida didn't charge any of these retailers with a crime, but the Lottery Secretary found them guilty of breaking her code of integrity and probably a result of the "repeat winners investigation".

"Louis Tillman Johnson, of Pompano Beach, cashed in 252 lottery tickets worth $600 or more between October 2007 and August 2013."

And it looks like he or another repeat winner cashed some more tickets after the lottery was investigated because of the repeat winners.

"Johnson, 68, said somebody had been cashing in tickets in his name and sticking him with the tax bill."

Most states know crooks are cashing lottery tickets to laundry drug money or help some players avoid taxes and child support but unless they can save more money than it cost to correct the problem it doesn't make economic sense to do anything about it.

Yep, they don't want to lose that extra revenue from clerks and owners playing.

Just like a business with unsafe operations, if the fine is small, they will continue to operate unsafe conditions and just pay the fine as a cost of doing business.

DRAMATIZATION: (fictional, for entertainment only) Lottery Asst- "Chief, this clerk scandal is growing and doesn't seem to be going away." Lottery Chief- "Yeah, the dang media and nosey newspapers got everyone all worked up." Lottery Asst- "What do we do?" Lottery Chief- "Let's throw 'em a bone. Take the top 3 stores and kill their contracts." Lottery Asst- "What do we say when people ask why they were shut down?" Lottery Chief- "They don't need to know. It's our rules and we can just say they violated them." Lottery Asst- "But the media will ask for more details." Lottery Chief- "Tell them we won't provide any more details. In a few weeks they'll be on to the next story." Lottery Asst- "Got it Chief, consider it done."

Most states know crooks are cashing lottery tickets to laundry drug money or help some players avoid taxes and child support but unless they can save more money than it cost to correct the problem it doesn't make economic sense to do anything about it.

Bet they didn't ask if you bought the ticket when you cashed your $1500 OCL winner because I was never asked in Ohio or in another state. And based on the lottery ads to buy tickets as "stocking stuffers" at Christmas, it has to be legal to cash a ticket we didn't buy. The reason a player would sell a lottery ticket at less than face value might make them a crook, but if buying and/or selling anything at more or less than face value is illegal, we're all guilty.

We might be very skeptical if a stranger offered us half the value of a $5000 pick-4 winning ticket just for cashing it, but are we breaking any laws by cashing it?

The investigation found that the lottery wasn't following some of the industry's best practices, including asking winners whether they own or work for stores that sell lottery tickets.

If they release the full report, everyone will see The Lottery was at fault as well.

"Louis Tillman Johnson, of Pompano Beach, cashed in 252 lottery tickets worth $600 or more between October 2007 and August 2013. He collected more than $719,000 in winnings. Fifty-three of his tickets were sold at Akel Market."

That's an average of 42 tickets a year and The Florida Lottery should have investigated after one person cashed 42 tickets in 2007.

"If they release the full report, everyone will see The Lottery was at fault as well."

If one person cashing multiple tickets is against the lottery rules or a state law, the lottery is at fault, but the story doesn't say if any laws or rules were broken. I believe Jon D has it correct when he suggested the lottery suspended the top three retailers because of the media heat. Any state lottery can create rules preventing store owners and employees from buying lottery tickets, but they better tell the players "all lottery sales are final" because it would be illegal for the store to buy mistakes.

Bet they didn't ask if you bought the ticket when you cashed your $1500 OCL winner because I was never asked in Ohio or in another state. And based on the lottery ads to buy tickets as "stocking stuffers" at Christmas, it has to be legal to cash a ticket we didn't buy. The reason a player would sell a lottery ticket at less than face value might make them a crook, but if buying and/or selling anything at more or less than face value is illegal, we're all guilty.

We might be very skeptical if a stranger offered us half the value of a $5000 pick-4 winning ticket just for cashing it, but are we breaking any laws by cashing it?

"Bet they didn't ask if you bought the ticket when you cashed your $1500 OCL winner because I was never asked in Ohio or in another state."

They didn't have to ask because a local retailer(where I brought it) had to verify my winning ticket and help me fill out paper work which included that information along the information necessary to receive a W-2G at the end of the year before I could collect my winnings from a local authorized bank.

My $1500 ticket was worth about $1200 after I payed the Federal, State and City taxes, it might had been worth less to someone not retired who had a larger income. I'm guessing I would have been lucky to get $1000 for it if I had wanted to hide the fact that I won it.

* you don't need more tickets, just the right ticket * * your best chance at winning a lottery jackpot is to buy a ticket * "I will magically reveal the winning numbers after the drawing"